DFS PLAYS OF THE DAY
Here are some of the best plays of the day if you're looking to set your daily lineup, or if you're playing the daily game. Be sure to look out for the DFS MLB Playbook for some other daily plays (see link above).
C: Jordan Pacheco is your cheapie play of the day if you are loading up elsewhere. The matchup looks daunting with Madison Bumgarner but lookie here - Pacheco has hit .370 with three doubles, a homer and six RBIs over 27 at-bats against the ace.
1B: Adam Lind flipping destroys John Lackey. Murders him like Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers actually.
Lind has hit .536 against Lackey. That's 15 hits in 28 at-bats. He hasn't homered but he has six doubles and six RBIs. Bonus... Joe Mauer has 11 hits in 27 at-bats against Jason Vargas. He also has driven in six runs. Even with his struggles the last three seasons Mauer still has a .290 batting average and .378 OBP against portsiders.
2B: Scooter Gennett ain't hitting much this season but that changes Thursday when he faces righty John Lackey. Gennett has hit .320 with a .836 OPS against righties in his career.
3B: Trevor Plouffe faces Jason Vargas who is an awfully boring fella. Plouffe has long been better against lefties and over 480 at-bats against portsiders he's had a solid slash line (.273/.344/.471) and he's gone deep 18 times as well.
SS: Jose Reyes has three steals and has hit .450 against Chris Archer in 20 at-bats. Reyes has hit .304 at home over his last 809 at-bats. He's also stolen 48 bases.
OF: Tommy Milone looked great his first time out. He won't match that effort Thursday against the Royals. Look for Lorenzo Cain to have a nice day. Not only is he off to a smoking start this season, but Cain also hit .313 with a .357 OBP against lefties in 2014.
OF: A.J. Pollock has hit .288 with a .846 OPS against lefties in his career. He faces a tough lefty Thursday, Madison Bumgarner, but he's had some success in the matchup with a .286 average, a homer and three RBIs. Don't overlook the fact that MadBum looked pretty average last time out allowing 10 hits and five runs in three innings.
OF: Jon Jay has hit .296 over 1,671 at-bats against righties. He faces righty Mike Fiers who he has three hits in 10 at-bats against. Jay has also hit .313 in 343 home games.
SP: Doug Fister, Nationals
He does face Cole Hamels so a win might not be easy to attain, but a pinpoint tosser like Fister, against the Phillies, well, hard to turn that option down. Current Phillies batters have one homer against Fister in 113 at-bats and the Phillies, through their first eight games against right-handed pitchers, have scored just 16 runs with a .571 OPS. Lock and load.
SP: Archie Bradley, Diamondbacks
The Giants are beat up and aren't an impressive group when it comes to power. Through nine games against RHP the Giants have hit .243 with five home runs as they have scored an average of 2.33 runs. That's not something to be afraid of, even if you're a rookie. Bradley allowed just one hit in his debut last time out and he gets to pitch in a nice environment at AT&T Park.
SP: Mike Fiers, Brewers
Has held current Cardinals batters to a .180/.231/.262 line over 65 plate appearances. Wowzahs. Fiers did allow five runs in his first outing this year, but over his last 11 starts he has a 2.58 ERA, 0.93 WHIP an a 9.86 K/9 mark. Sounds good to me.
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DIAMONDBACKS CALL UP SLUGGER
Yasmany Tomas went to the minors and hit .190 over 21 at-bats. The Diamondbacks thought that was enough work on the farm so they called him up to the bigs Wednesday. Entering play Wednesday night Ender Inciarte was batting .393 to lead the team. He figures to continue to get work in the outfield for a while. Mark Trumbo is batting .286 and has yet to go deep, but we all know he is playing daily. A.J. Pollock is struggling a bit with .671 OPS, but we're talking eight games here and he's the most complete outfielder they have. So the question becomes, will Tomas be the 4th outfielder or will the club being doing something asinine like benching Pollock? I ask because while Jake Lamb is only playing against righties he's off to an impressive start (.389/.476/.722) so there's no plan I can conceive of in which he doesn't continue to play. Maybe the team is close to dealing Aaron Hill which would open up work for Tomas against lefties, though he would have to play third base in order to do that and it sounds like the D'backs realize the foolishness of that offseason plan. Bottom line is don't go all in on adding Tomas since there's no obvious path to playing time at the moment. Just ask the GM Dave Stewart. "He is here primarily as a guy that we can use off the bench, pinch-hit and give us good at-bats."
Just cause. Godzilla.
TRENDS
Cody Asche is having one hell of a start to the season. He's at .500 through 24 at-bats (11 of his 12 hits are singles). Thoughts of Maikel Franco manning the hot corner in in Philadelphia are in the distance at the moment. Asche ain't a bad hitter, but he's also not going to be a plus player in mixed leagues.
Travis d'Arnaud has an RBI in seven of eight games this season. He's got a shot to be a top-10 catcher this season.
Ike Davis has gone for nine hits in 20 at-bats. A sneaky option is he, especially against righties.
Rajai Davis hit a home run Wednesday off Francisco Liriano. Davis is also a .300 hitter against lefties for his career. Anthony Gose will not be playing on a daily basis.
Brian Dozier hit cleanup for the first time in his career Wednesday. Hey, it's better than Torii Hunter.
Nathan Eovaldi through two starts: 1.94 WHIP.
Francisco Liriano allowed just one run while striking out seven over six innings Wednesday. He also only issued one free pass which is very heartening. Just to repeat, he's thrown 165 innings in a season once in his career.
Collin McHugh was excellent last year. He was even better than that Wednesday night as he dominated the Athletics. McHugh allowed just one and didn't walk a batter ver 5.2 innings, but it was the 11 punchouts that has everyone talking. When McHugh or Dallas Keuchel start the Astros are 4-0. They are 0-5 when others toe the slab.
Alfredo Simon tossed eight shutout innings allowing just two hits and not walking a single batter. He only had two strikeouts, and that's the rub. While his ratios might be league average, the lack of strikeouts will hold him back in the fantasy game. Sell off this outing if you can. By the way, the Tigers have shutout their opponent four times in nine games. Wow.
Appearing for the fifth time in six days Joakim Soria recorded his 4th save. Hard to see how Joe Nathan is gonna get that job back in Detroit. Meanwhile the Pirates had a third game this season with three or less hits. That only happened to them twice last year.
Justin Upton has a hit in all 10 games he's played for the Padres.
INJURIES
Sean Doolittle (shoulder) was throwing up to 105 feet Wednesday. Sounds like he could be ready to go by mid-May. Long road to get there though so be patient and make sure your expectations aren't too high, at least early on.
Felix Hernandez (quad) will make his next schedule start against the Rangers on Saturday, just like he said he would.
Mark Melancon says he's not hurt, but how do you explain an altered release point then?
Time will tell with Melancon and while I'm not overly troubled by his situation I'm going to be paying really close attention to his next couple of outings (he worked a scoreless inning Wednesday).
Sounds like David Wright will likely miss at least three weeks with his hamstring issue (Will Carroll told us on The Fantasy Drive Wednesday night that Wright could be out 4-6 weeks). Looks like the Mets will continue to use Wilmer Flores at shortstop and Daniel Murphy at second, so who covers third in Wright's absence? In steps Eric Campbell. The 28 year old had 190 at-bats last season with the Mets hitting .263 with a .322 OBP and .358 SLG. Yeah, that is boring as all get out. He's nothing but an NL-only play.
NOTE: I will be away the next few days so the Daily Trends article will be handled by Howard Bender Friday and Monday.